This really can be a headache.
Lost revenue due to lost direct bookings, plus you’ll have other OTAs on at you to offer them the same rates available elsewhere.
We’re talking rates discounted by as much as 20% compared with the correct retail rates…
Add in guests who’ve already made bookings calling up unhappily asking for partial refunds as a ‘pricematch’ and ‘Thiiiings can only get betteeeeer…!’
You check on the link you’re given to the site offering the discounted rate, and there it is, a discounted rate being offered by a provider you’ve no contract with – Hmmmmmmm
They get their rates via wholesalers like Hotelbeds.com and GTA, apply a minimal markup and then sail to the top of the price comparison sites – a good business model and good for consumers, but they grab direct bookings from right under your nose (and then the aggravation from other OTAs asking for parity, and requests from existing bookings for partial refunds – plus the damage that does to existing customer loyalty / negating the value of the customer loyalty programmes you went to so much trouble to put into place…
The solution…?
Contact the renegade OTAs directly and you get nowhere – they know what they are doing…
The only way to solve the issue is to get the wholesalers to close off access to that channel, but you’ll need to do it on all your wholesalers, as just as soon as you have one closed off those renegade OTAs find supply through another; again and again and again…
Cut off their supply and you’re free from them!
Have a look on the metasearch engine price comparison sites to see if you’re suffering from this issue.
Nobody likes their direct booking ‘special offers’ being undercut!
Have you experienced this? What solution did you come to…?